SKIING ON THE SCHOOL CURRICULUM: BRING IT ON
20th January 2020
Last modified on May 16th, 2021
The Valais canton in Switzerland is considering introducing snowsports to the school programme. Skiers are an ageing group and there are significant worries for the future as fewer young people participate.
According to a report in a Swiss newspaper, the region wants school pupils to have three obligatory snowsports days a year.
Valais includes some of the country’s most famous ski resorts, among them Verbier, Zermatt and Crans Montana.
The newspaper, NZZ am Sonntag, says the measure will cost CHF2.7 million (£2.14m/€2.5m)
It is said to have been approved already by the cantonal government and will be introduced in time for next winter.
“I am convinced that winter sport has a future,” the Valais education minister Christopher Darbellay told the newspaper.
“But for this to work, we have to get young people back on their skis and there is no better way of doing this than through school.”
The plan is for all school pupils from the age of 8 upwards to have three days each winter on the ski slopes as part of their sports lessons.
They will benefit from cheap lift passes, ski school lessons and ski hire.
It’s not clear to us at PlanetSKI why the canton has gone for just three days each year.
Maybe it’s the cost.
But it will, at least, introduce school children to skiing at a relatively young age and, it’s hoped, encourage them to stick with it.
The latest initiative follows concerns that participation in snowsports has been falling among the young, not just in Switzerland, but in other countries too.
A recent survey by the Association of Mayors of Mountain Resorts suggested that the under 25s represent just 14% of skiers in France.
That’s down from 20% in 1995.
The findings come against the backdrop of a 14% fall in the number of people visiting French ski resorts over the past decade.
Another study found that the average age of people who ski is between 43 and 65.
The average age of a skier from the Netherlands is 48.4 years old.
In Austria 48.8% of British visitors stay in 4* or 5* hotels and it is a fair assumption to make that they are mostly not young.
“The lack of young people taking up skiing and snowboarding is the most significant problem facing snowsports after climate change,” said the PlanetSKI editor, James Cove.
“Bluntly, there are not enough children and young people taking up the sport and they are the skiers and snowboarders of the future.
“Without new blood coming in, the sport we all love will go into decline, it is as simple as that.”
James is currently is the SkiWelt Austria where the country faces a similar problem.
The SkiWelt offers a significant reduction in the price of lift passes for children.
The new Austrian President has said he wants all schools in the country to offer a week of skiing per year to children as part of the curriculum.
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The plan to introduce skiing to the Valais school curriculum has been welcomed by Verein Schneesportinitiative Schweiz, a Swiss non-profit organisation set up to promote snowsports among the young, especially in schools.
“This offer is unique to Switzerland,” Ole Rauch from the organisation told NZZ Am Sonntag.
In recent years Switzerland has also begun re-inventing school ‘ski camps’.
After a decline in traditional school ski trips, teachers have been encouraged and given assistance to organise day or overnight ski trips for pupils.
